Batterygate: Apple Will Replace iPhone 6 And Later Battery For $29 Regardless Of Its Condition

When Apple announced last week that it would be reducing the price of replacement iPhone 6 and newer iPhone batteries from $79 to $29, it seemed to have left itself some wiggle room.

The announcement said that “anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced” would be eligible for the discount, but did not go into details as to what constituted a battery that needed to be replaced. Now, we have some form of clarification – anyone asking for a new battery will get one at the reduced price. No questions asked.

The news initially came via French site iGeneration which said it had heard reports of an Apple internal memo that instructed stores to allow users to buy replacement batteries even after a Genius had confirmed that their existing battery was still functionally acceptable. Later, MacRumors also received confirmation from Apple itself that this is the case.

Apple’s benchmark for when a battery needs replacing is apparently triggered when it no longer holds 80% of the charge it did when it was new. Now, we know that Apple will allow customers to buy a new battery regardless of whether that point has been reached or not.

Apple had to begin offering the discount after it was rightfully lambasted for its lack of transparency relating to the throttling of iPhones with older, less capable batteries. With older iPhones being artificially speed limited to allow their poorly performing batteries to continue to function, the offer of a reduced replacement battery will allow customers with older iPhones – iPhone 6 or newer – to breathe new life into their handset.

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Will this apply to the iPhone 8 and the X when they drop down to 80% as well?

SpikeToronto

Probably not, because now all Apple iPhone users have been forewarned that Apple plans in the obsolescence — er “throttles to maximize performance” — of its iPhones.

SpikeToronto

Oh! I see what you mean. Perhaps the headline should have used “and earlier battery” instead of “and later battery”.?

TP Folair

I’m rockin a jailbroken 6s Plus running 9.0.2 and wondering what kind, if any, interference I may run into should I bring it in for battery replacement. Any kind, knowing folks have a notion and/or advice?

baker_tony

Fuck I hate it when people put “gate” at the end of everything because they lack imagination.

Zeshan Rodrigues

when I went to replace my phone under the free iPhone 5 replacement offer back in the day the Apple Store told me that cause it’s jail broken they wouldn’t even attend to it … so I called Apple and requested a one time grant of them to replace my battery on the basis that my whole family and I all have apple products and we’ve been loyal for years :)… on getting that note placed on my account, even tho I was jail broken, the store had to replace my battery cause the grant was my trump…

So basically from my knowledge they may not take the phone in if it’s jailbroken … I feel it’s up to the discretion of the store or apple care assistant

Chris Conway

Excess stock clearance.

Nick

If you are jailbroken just back up all your tweaks and back up your whole phone on iTunes. Use cydia eraser to go back to stock form, this allows you to have a fresh install without having to update. Tell Genius Bar you like how old iOS works and you don’t want to update. You will not be jailbroken so they can’t refuse. After they replace the battery just restore your backup and jailbreak again. Most of your jailbreak tweaks saved data will be backed up with the rest of your phone. Use PKGBackup to save and restore all cydia tweaks.

Dr K

Will they still replace it if there is an aftermarket battery installed?